Brockport native competes in Alaskan dog sled race

by Shelby Toth - News Editor

Tue, Mar 27th 2018 09:00 pm

A Brockport native completed the famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska for the second time in his life. 21-year-old Noah Pereira placed 31 out of 67 competitors, only 52 of which actually completed the course, in this nearly 1,000 mile race, stretching from Anchorage to Nome. Pereira completed the race in 11 days, 11 hours and 22 minutes, after starting on March 4, according to The Democrat & Chronicle.

“This year there was a lot of snow,” Pereria said of the race. “Instead of a hard, fast trail, the dogs were often breaking through four or more inches of fresh powder. I was very pleased with my team and happy to see how well they did in difficult conditions.”

The day before the race began, Pereira updated his Instagram account with a video his dogs. He captioned the footage “The team! #iditarod2018.” He also received a slew of encouragement over various social media platforms.

While he only graduated in 2014, he has been involved with sled dog racing, also known as mushing, since middle school. Pereira cited a musher coming into his school to talk about what they did while he was in fourth grade as his inspiration to begin dog sled racing. He got his first dog in 2009, and began racing in 2010.

The preperation for this competition is no doubt very strenuous, as Pereira described.

“Training is very demanding on the musher, both physically and mentally,” he said. “In a normal day, I’m with my dogs about eight to 10 hours, either mushing or keeping up with the chores. During some of our training trips I’ll spend [over three] days with just the dogs outside the entire time.”

As for the dogs, they are obviously vital to racers. In the Iditarod, all racers begin with 12 to 16 dogs and end with at least five. Pereira began the race with 16 dogs and ended with 10.

Pereira isn’t new to the Iditarod. He first raced in the 2016 competition, placing 55 out of 85 despite being the youngest musher to compete that year, according to The Democrat & Chronicle. He also became the first non-Alaskan native to win the Junior Iditarod in 2013.